What first started as following a group of Mormon housewives-turned-TikTokers in Utah has rapidly turned into a high-speed balancing act for the production team behind “The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives,” whose stars have blossomed into authors, Broadway actresses, “Dancing With the Stars” frontrunners and even “The Bachelorette.”
Piecing together filming schedules for mega reality stars is par for the course for EP Jeff Jenkins — whose company Jeff Jenkins Productions produces “Secret Lives” alongside Select — given his background producing “Keeping Up with the Kardashians” from Season 1, which saw the family of socialites and entrepreneurs get discovered by the world. “Honestly, I think, with a … successful [unscripted] show in the modern world, to some degree, this always happens,” Jenkins said.
“As the career expands, the challenges of scheduling and the challenges of collecting content grow, and it does become harder … the availability of the cast to shoot the unscripted show shrinks,” Jenkins told TheWrap, likening production to Jenga though noting “when their career takes off and these opportunities come, we’re cheering for them.” “I never want to hold anybody back.”
While the opportunities for the ladies of MomTok expanded production in both Los Angeles for Jen Affleck and Whitney Leavitt’s time on “Dancing With the Stars” and New York for Leavitt’s Broadway adventure, Jenkins and the team were thrown a new curveball when series star Taylor Frankie Paul was offered the role of “The Bachelorette,” whose strict production policies would certainly not allow for the same behind-the-scene access as “Dancing.”
“As producers, we have to roll with it … and part of rolling with that particular experience is doing our part to maintain the confidentiality,” Jenkins said, noting there’s a “very, very, very tiny circle who have any information of behind-the-scenes of ‘The Bachelorette.’” “I don’t want to know anything.”
In order to maintain confidentially, Jenkins and the team constructed Season 4 and Season 5 as “bookends” to Paul’s time on “The Bachelorette,” with the fourth installment seeing Paul in the weeks before filming the dating series while the fifth is set to follow her upon her return.
This interview was conducted prior to the news that production on Season 5 paused due to a domestic violence incident involving Paul and her ex-boyfriend Dakota Mortensen.
“If everything shakes out editorially as all of us envision you’ll again see Taylor preparing for the experience, and then you’ll see her return from the experience,” Jenkins said. “I don’t think it’s ever been done in this way, where you really get a very rich, thorough journey along with her to see what happens before and what happens afterwards.”
With the opportunities for MomTok only growing, Jenkins noted the team will continue to find ways to document their lives “as our cast wants to share their life,” pointing to the cameras still being up for “globe-trotting billionaire” Kim Kardashian.
“Projects like this only end when the cast has had enough, when they’re tired of sharing … and you see that in episodes when content becomes thin because casts are pulling back,” Jenkins said. “That has not happened on the ‘Secret Lives of Mormon Wives,’ thankfully — our cast remain very open book with their lives, so I think it can continue as long as they want it to continue.”
One person who wasn’t along for that journey this season was Demi Engemann, who dropped out of the main cast for Season 4 following lingering disagreements with the group regarding an incident with “Vanderpump Villa” star Marciano Brunette.
“I’m always sad when cast members remove themselves from a project,” Jenkins said. “I always hope that whatever the challenges are with a project or a particular thread of ‘story’ that we’re following, that cast members can work things out on camera and come out the other side and find that their relationship is stronger than ever, because they’ve gone through something difficult together and found a path forward together.”
That said, Jenkins noted it’s a lot harder than one might expect to share the ins and outs of one’s personal life. “It can take a lot out of you, and it can be a lot more intense than you ever anticipated,” Jenkins said. “But that being said, I hope that she comes back someday, but I respect if she chooses to remain removed, it’s really up to her.”
Engemann was also not included in the elevation of the rest of MomTok — Paul, Affleck, Leavitt, Jessi Draper, Miranda Hope, Mikayla Matthews, Mayci Neeley and Layla Taylor — to executive producers, a credit they gained in addition to stars. Per Jenkins, the credit is “appropriate” and “deserved” given the openness of the cast over several seasons, and serves as a signal of respect from the network, saying “it’s a way for the for the network to say, ‘I respect you. I’m grateful to you for your contribution, I take you seriously, and we are collaborative partners.’”
“I would say it’s almost industry standard,” Jenkins said. “The sharing really is … the most important part of producing a show like this. I think an executive producer credit after you’ve paid your dues and you’ve proven that you are committed to sharing … is appropriate.”
With Season 4 out, fans have noted that DadTok — the group created by the husbands and past partners of MomTok — got an extended amount of screentime this installment, a decision Jenkins noted was to spotlight their gender role reversal as the women went from stay-at-home moms to the main breadwinners.
“They’re a microcosm of a greater dynamic that … in my observation, is playing out across America and maybe across the world … and over the season of ‘Secret Lives of Mormon Wives,’ we’ve seen the males on this cast their roles in the family really shift into stay-at-home dads [and] childcare as a primary function of their day, letting go of their salaried careers and allowing the females to be the breadwinners,” Jenkins said. “We’re seeing our wives become the dominant decisionmakers … and so we’re seeing these men, piece-by-piece, kind of relinquish what have been traditionally male gender roles in America.”
All that being said, Jenkins noted he thinks the viewers “enjoy the stories of our ladies than they do of our men” and noted the men are “always supporting cast members.”
“DadTok is not the primary reason why we document this group,” he said. “This is about women …. they are the mere flip side of the equation — our men.”
“The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives” Seasons 1-4 are now streaming on Hulu.
